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Manoel and Fragoso, fifty paces further on, after swiftly running round one of the spurs of the bank, saw two men standing face to face to each other. They were Torres and Benito. In an instant Manoel and Fragoso had hurried up to them.
To Fragoso's questions the chief of the party had no hesitation in replying; he had no interest in keeping silence with regard to the few simple matters on which he was interrogated. In fact, three questions only of importance were asked him by Fragoso, and these were: "Did not a captain of the woods named Torres belong to your party a few months ago?" "Yes."
A little before the sun disappeared, Araujo, finding it useless to continue his operations in the gloom, gave the signal for the boats to join company and return together to the confluence of the Rio Negro and regain the jangada. The work so carefully and intelligently conducted was not, however, at an end. Manoel and Fragoso, as they came back, dared not mention their ill success before Benito.
"I have come from the neighborhood of Iquitos." "So have I!" exclaimed Fragoso. "I have come down the Amazon from Iquitos to Tabatinga. May I ask your name?" "No objection at all," replied the stranger. "My name is Torres."
The knights were already ranged along the poop, and, accompanied by Ralph and Caretto, Gervaise moved to the gangway to receive the visitors. At their head was Battista Fragoso, the doge, in his robe of state, and following him were a body of the highest nobles of Genoa, all brilliant in gala costume.
A considerable sum in gold was handed over to him by Benito to meet all eventualities during the voyage on the Madeira. In getting the pirogue ready, he announced his intention of going in search of Fragoso, whose fate excited a good deal of anxiety among his companions.
A kind of calm swiftly succeeded to the tempest which raged within him. He dropped the document from his clenched hand, smoothed it out on the table, sat down, and, passing his hand over his eyes "That name?" he said "Ortega? Let us see," and then he proceeded with the new name brought back by Fragoso as he had done with the other names so vainly tried by himself.
Far away the view extended across the flat, where cultivated fields had replaced the former forests. Benito did not speak; he could not utter a word. Manoel and Fragoso respected his silence. And so the three of them went along and looked about on all sides as they traversed the space between the bank of the Rio Negro and that of the Amazon.
"No, all the time he was not in his cabin he was in the bow of the raft." "And what was he doing?" "Holding an old piece of paper in his hand, consulting it with great attention, and muttering a lot of incomprehensible words." "All that is not so unimportant as you think, Mr. Fragoso. These readings and writings and old papers have their interest!
"Where do you come from, then?" asked Fragoso, who always had the idea that he had already met Torres somewhere. "From the province of Minas Geraes." "And you were born " "In the capital of the diamond district, Tijuco." Those who had seen Joam Garral at this moment would have been surprised at the fixity of his look which met that of Torres. "Yes," said Torres. "Do you hail from that province?"
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